I remember the time when I was contemplating about leaving the job that I had. I was (how I felt) at the height of my career. I knew that I could have really been one of the top executives of the company that I worked for. My job was easy to love. Even if it was in a financial institution, my job was really product management and product development. I loved it because I got to practice and use my strengths, which was marketing and to some extent, sales. I also have this innate passion for innovation and a love for learning about technology which made my job easy for me. The work environment also helped me love every single day. I had friends who I loved dearly, a very supportive boss and people from other departments who were easy to work with. So you see, everything was going great for me.

I know a lot of you have that little voice inside your head telling you that you need to start your own business and you need to take that leap. But also, you are in the same situation as I was in — good job, great friends, great life! Well, although my personal advocacy is to help people create and build successful businesses, I would not jump the gun and tell you to go ahead and make that leap! On the contrary, I will advise you to check if going into business is really something for you. The same goes with working from home or freelancing. You have to check if freelancing or working-from-home in general is for you.

I won’t tell you how great my life is when I decided to work-at-home and be an entrepreneur (since I freely and openly share that in other posts in this blog), but I will tell you how I came to that decision of finally working from home and starting my business.

My decision was such because it was really because I wanted to spend more time for myself (I didn’t want to be stressed, since I was giving birth) and more time for the baby. Yes, we, as a couple went through those logical things that you do when you’re weighing things, like listing the pros and cons in each side of a notebook, doing a spur of the moment budget and spending analysis, doing an immediate check and inventory of assets and liabilities, but then again, the decision was made really because I wanted to be there for my daughter during the first years of her life.

And how was it like for me? It was really scary at first. I didn’t know if this business (ManilaWorkshops.com) would fly. I had businesses prior to this one, but of course, at that time, I had my stable job to help me sustain those businesses. But with this leap, I had nothing. I only had my blogging career, which I didn’t think I could rely on to sustain my expenses and the business (knock-on-wood if it went bad).

What really helped me establish and help my business succeed is the support group of work-at-home-moms in the WAHMderful Life Community. I owe a lot to the ladies in the community. They were there supporting the workshops, for moral support and for marketing support. I love how the WAHMderful Life Community has grown and had really become the support group for women who have decided to take that leap towards working-at-home.

Before you make that decision, think about it and expose yourself and hear from the ladies and gentlemen who have made that decision. See if this is what you want for yourself. See if this is the life that you want.

This is the reason why we created the Workat-Home Weekend Expo. This is for you to be able to learn from the experts. And I’m not just talking about technical know-how, but I want you to learn from what they have gone through. I want you to be open and I want you to mingle with these speakers and freely approach them. I will be there, too, so I want you to approach me and let’s talk. I might be busy in setting up the event, but I’m sure I will have the time to talk to you and listen.